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<title>who needs confetti, we're already falling into the groove by theglitterati</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28139889">who needs confetti, we're already falling into the groove</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/theglitterati/pseuds/theglitterati'>theglitterati</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(y'all i have been wanting to write a fic about the horses for AGES), First Kiss, M/M, School Dances, The Shiratorizawa Horses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:34:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,048</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28139889</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/theglitterati/pseuds/theglitterati</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tendou doesn't show up to the dance; Semi finds him in an unexpected place.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Semi Eita/Tendou Satori</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>93</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>who needs confetti, we're already falling into the groove</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Title from "Late to the Party" by Kacey Musgaves.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Oh my god,” Yamagata said. “It’s happening again. Look!”</p><p>Semi followed his gaze across the gym. Ushijima stood awkwardly by the snack table with a girl who appeared to be in the middle of confessing to him. His expression resembled that of someone about to get a tooth pulled.</p><p>“‘Oh, Ushiwaka-chan, you’re sooo cute,’” Yamagata crooned in a high falsetto when the girl spoke. “‘I like you sooo much.’”</p><p>“‘I’m sorry, but I cannot return your feelings,’” Kawanishi said in a poor imitation of Ushijima’s booming voice. “‘My heart belongs… to volleyball.’” He turned away dramatically, reminding Semi of Tuxedo Mask.</p><p>“Jealous much?” Shirabu appeared beside them, a glass of punch in his hand. He glanced at Semi. “What the hell are you wearing?”</p><p>“Clothes?” Semi wore black jeans and a grey sweater with rips in it that he’d found in a thrift store.</p><p>“If you say so.”</p><p>Semi ignored him and checked the clock. It was almost eight. The dance — Shiratorizawa’s student council’s worst idea yet — started at seven. Since then, Semi had had two glasses of punch and watched Ushijima get hit on four times — no, five; the girl he’d just rejected had already been replaced by another — and Tendou still hadn’t shown up.</p><p>Ushijima joined them, having turned this girl down, too. “Break some more hearts, Wakatoshi-kun?” Yamagata asked.</p><p>“They both asked me to dance with them. They found it amusing when I said I did not know how.”</p><p>“You could have let one of them teach you!”</p><p>Ushijima frowned. “Why?”</p><p>“Okay, this is painful,” Kawanishi said.</p><p>“Guys, leave him alone.” Semi knew Ushijima hadn’t wanted to come in the first place and had probably only done so to represent the team, not that they appreciated it. “Wakatoshi-kun, do you know where Tendou is?”</p><p>“Is he not here? He told me he would be.”</p><p>“Yeah, he told me that, too,” Semi grumbled. </p><p>“He’s probably at the stable,” Shirabu said. “He goes there sometimes.”</p><p>“Huh?” Semi said. “Why would he go to the stable?”</p><p>Shirabu rolled his eyes. “Do I look like I either know or care? Ask him yourself.”</p><p>“Fine,” Semi snapped. He was not going to fight with Shirabu at a school dance; that would be the dumbest cliché ever. “I’m going. I’ll see you guys later.”</p><p>“I’ll walk with you,” Ushijima said. “I'm going to go back to my room now.” Semi nodded and they headed toward the door.</p><p>“Maybe some girls will actually talk to us now Wakatoshi’s gone,” Yamagata said.</p><p>“I highly doubt it,” Shirabu said.</p><p>Semi left Ushijima at the dorms and continued across campus to the stable. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been inside; it might have been during his tour of Shiratorizawa at the end of middle school. He had no reason to go there and horses kind of freaked him out. He didn’t know why Tendou would be there, either. If this was some elaborate prank of Shirabu’s, Semi really would fight him.</p><p>The stable door was open, the smell of hay and horse crap hanging in the cool air. Semi stepped in, letting his eyes adjust to the low light. There was only one other person inside.</p><p>“Okay, Bitey-kun, let’s try this again.” Tendou stretched his arm out, offering a carrot to a tall, black horse. “Don’t take my hand off this time… oh, hey, Semi-Semi.”</p><p>“Did you call that horse Bitey-kun?”</p><p>“Yep! Their names are all stupid, so I gave them new ones. There’s Sakura-chan, Ponyta, and this one’s Bitey-kun, ‘cause he bites— ah!” He whipped his hand back before Bitey-kun could remove it. “Like that.” He moved a safe distance away from Bitey-kun and leaned against the wall. “Whatcha doin’ here, Semi-Semi?”</p><p>“Looking for you,” Semi said. “You’re supposed to be at the dance.”</p><p>“Oh, right.” Tendou glanced at the ceiling. “Guess it slipped my mind.”</p><p>“Tendou, nothing ever slips your mind.”</p><p>“Yeah, okay. I knew it was tonight, but I decided to come hang out with the horses instead.”</p><p>Semi crossed his arms. “You could have told me. I was waiting for you.”</p><p>“I could have,” Tendou countered, “but you would have tried to convince me to go.”</p><p>“I might not have, if you had a good reason. Do you have a good reason?”</p><p>Tendou ducked his head. “Because I don’t belong there.”</p><p>“For god’s sake, Tendou—”</p><p>“Shh! Not here!” Semi had raised his voice. “The horses don’t like yelling.” Tendou grabbed him by the elbow and led him into an alcove that was part-tack room, part-carrot storage. With the door closed, it was so small their knees knocked together.</p><p>“I know you hate it when I say stuff like that,” Tendou said, “but it’s true—”</p><p>“It’s not.”</p><p>“Come on. Do I really look like someone who should be at a school dance? Like on some American TV show? It’s not like it matters if I don’t go.”</p><p>“It matters to me! You think no one cares, but I care—”</p><p>“I know you do, Eita.” Tendou smiled sadly. “I know how much you want to make people feel welcome, all the time. It’s one of my favourite things about you. I just… don’t need it. Not for a school dance, anyway.”</p><p>“But you might miss out on…” On what? Shirabu’s bad attitude? Watching Ushijima get hit on? Tendou got plenty of that every day. “On stuff,” Semi finished lamely.</p><p>“Maybe,” Tendou allowed. “But I’m having fun here, so it’s okay, right?”</p><p>Semi shrugged and kicked at a piece of hay on the floor. They had had this argument many times before, and Semi had never won. He didn’t understand why Tendou was fine with sitting out when Semi was always fighting for his own right to show up. Nothing made him angrier than when people acted like life was an exclusive party he and his friends weren’t invited to. Maybe Tendou was right; maybe he did care too much.</p><p>Tendou tapped Semi’s foot with his. “You wanna give the horses some treats?” </p><p>“Fine. But not Bitey-kun.”</p><p>“Oh, definitely not Bitey-kun. He’s not for amateurs. No, not those,” Tendou said, when Semi reached for the carrots. “We’ll give them the good stuff.” He took a small box from the shelf behind Semi: sugar cubes.</p><p>They left the tiny room and headed down the aisle. “Our first customer is Mochi Head-san,” Tendou said.</p><p>“Are these names seriously better than their real ones?”</p><p>“Of course! Look, she has a mark on her head like a mochi ball.” Tendou pointed out the white mark on the brown horse’s head.</p><p>“It’s a circle, Tendou.”</p><p>“Close enough! Here, take a sugar cube. You have to put your hand flat, so they don’t accidentally eat your fingers.”</p><p>Semi yanked his hand back. “What!?”</p><p>“Don’t worry, it’s fine. Mochi Head-san is super old, I think. She won’t bite. Go ahead and give it to her.”</p><p>Semi held out a shaky hand. The horse sniffed him, her whiskers ticking his palm, before gently picking up the cube and crunching on it.</p><p>“See? You can pet her, too.” Tendou rubbed her white spot like he expected a genie to come out. Semi tentatively did the same. </p><p>“Well, she didn’t bite me, so that’s something.”</p><p>They made their way around the room, Semi giving Bitey-kun a wide berth when Tendou gave him his cube. “How did you find me, anyway?” Tendou asked.</p><p>“Shirabu told me you’d be here.”</p><p>“That makes sense. Kenjirou-kun’s down here a lot.”</p><p>Semi paused. “Seriously?”</p><p>“Yeah. He actually knows how to ride, too.”</p><p>“You don’t?” Tendou shook his head. “Are you going to learn?”</p><p>“Nah,” Tendou said. “I just like petting them.”</p><p>“Weirdo.” Ponyta, who actually did look a little like the Pokémon, demanded another cube. Semi obliged.</p><p>“So did I actually miss anything fun?”</p><p>“Wakatoshi got asked out five times in an hour and went to hide in his room,” Semi said.</p><p>“Great minds think alike. Did anyone dance?”</p><p>“Reon, with his girlfriend. A girl asked Tsutomu and he tripped over his own feet before they started. She was nice about it, though.”</p><p>Tendou laughed. “Okay, that I do wish I had seen.” </p><p>Semi took out a sugar cube for Sakura-chan, the last horse in the row. He assumed Tendou had named her for her dapples, which resembled falling cherry blossoms. She was even gentler than Mochi Head-san.</p><p>Semi kept his eyes fixed on her and said, “I was going to ask you to dance.”</p><p>He felt Tendou still beside him, but by the time he got the courage to look at him, his face was schooled into its usual lopsided smile. “So ask me.”</p><p>“Here?”</p><p>“I don’t think the horses will mind.”</p><p>“It’s weird.”</p><p>“Weirder than a Japanese high school having a dance? Who cares!”</p><p>Semi scoffed. “Fine.”</p><p>“No, you have to actually ask me.”</p><p>“Tendou,” Semi whined. Tendou waited. “Ugh. Will you dance with me?”</p><p>“I would love to.” He stepped a few feet away from the horses and put his hands on Semi’s waist.</p><p>“How come I have to be the girl?” Semi asked.</p><p>“You’re not the <em> girl, </em>Semi-Semi. Don’t be sexist. You’re the short one.”</p><p>“This was way better in my head,” Semi grumbled, even as he wrapped his arms around Tendou’s neck. They started to slowly sway.</p><p>“How did it go in your head? And don’t say no horses. That’s just your lack of imagination.”</p><p>“There was music, for one,” Semi said, “and maybe other people around.”</p><p>“So you could show me off?”</p><p>“So I would have something to look at.” Semi was currently staring at his nails; the black polish he’d put on that morning was already chipped.</p><p>“You can look at me,” Tendou said.</p><p>Semi glanced up and immediately looked away. “No, I really can’t.” The raw adoration on Tendou’s face made Semi blush all the way to his toes.</p><p>“Close your eyes, then,” Tendou said. “I’ll close mine, too.”</p><p>It was easier that way, though now all of Semi’s attention was on the beat of his pounding heart, the squeeze of Tendou’s hands on his hips. One of them left his side and trailed upward into his hair, stroking it back from his face. He felt Tendou sigh.</p><p>“Eita?”</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>“I’m glad you found me.”</p><p>Before Semi could reply, Tendou pressed their lips together. It was a gentle kiss; Tendou pulled back before Semi could move, leaning their foreheads together. It took a while for Semi’s brain to catch up, but when it did, he grabbed Tendou and kissed him fiercely.</p><p>They stayed there for a long time, the distance between them disappearing. Semi opened his eyes when they broke apart for air. Tendou grinned from ear to ear — not the smirk he used on opponents, but his real smile, the one that Semi so rarely saw. He couldn’t help returning it.</p><p>“That was… really nice, Eita,” Tendou said.</p><p>“Yeah, it was. I think that’s the longest I’ve ever seen you go without talking.”</p><p>Tendou cackled. “You’re probably right.” He brought a hand to Semi’s face, skimming it across his cheek. “Maybe we should see how long you can shut me up for.” Semi automatically leaned in, but Tendou stopped him. “Not here, though. The horse feed guy usually comes around this time. I don’t want my visiting privileges revoked.”</p><p>“Alright.” Semi thought he could use some fresh air, anyway. “Let’s go.”</p><p>They locked up and started up the path back to school. Tendou slipped his hand into Semi’s like it was the easiest thing in the world.</p><p>He stopped when they were halfway there. “Hey, Eita,” he said. “If you want to go back to the dance, I’ll go with you. I mean, I need to change my clothes first, but then we can go.”</p><p>Semi frowned. “But you said you didn’t care.”</p><p>“Yeah, but you do, and I care about you. If it’ll make you happy, I’ll do it. We can get Wakatoshi, too, drag him back with us.”</p><p>They could do that. They could make a grand entrance, holding hands, and dance together in the middle of the floor. It would be a giant fuck-you to everyone who ever said they didn’t belong.</p><p>“Nah,” Semi said. “Wanna go to your room and read Shounen Jump and make out instead?”</p><p>Tendou smiled. “I thought you’d never ask.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>You can find me at kyrstin.tumblr.com!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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